Veronica Fields

1930 - 2024

Veronica Fields
08/31/1930 - 07/06/2024
On Saturday July 6th, we lost our wonderful mother, grandmother, and mother-in-law Veronica (Vera) Fields, also known as VV to her loving grandchildren.
Vera was born in Dublin, Ireland as the third child of her Swiss and German parents, but grew up in Blackpool, England. Forged in a childhood in WWII Northern England amid food rationing and the early death of her mother from TB, she set out alone by ship at age 18, with a ticket sent by her older brother who was a lumberjack in Canada. He got her a job making sandwiches in his logging camp, and eventually she made her way to Montreal where she worked as a secretary. When her male boss quit, she took over his job but was not promoted or given a raise as she was a woman, so she quit and moved to Jamaica where she worked for a year in a hotel. When she returned to Montreal she was quickly rehired by her old company, which had felt her absence and now provided the raise and promotion she had been denied. She met her future husband, Curtis Fields, on the tennis court and following their courtship and marriage, their first child Gregory was born in 1959. On a visit to San Francisco, they fell in love with the city and moved here for good in 1960. Their second child, Antony, was born in 1961, only 17 months after his brother. Vera would often recount that she spent much of the early years in tears as she had to deal with two children in diapers at the same time, but she persevered and used her organizational skills, smarts, and hunger for learning to get her real estate brokers' license, eventually parlaying the pair of flats where they lived into several family-run rental properties.
In the midst of all her hard work, Vera found the time to throw many parties with a large circle of friends, travel extensively, play lots of tennis, sew most of her own clothing, attend theater, hike in the beloved Marin Headlands, and take Spanish classes (though for all her abilities, she could never develop a passable Spanish accent). She was never shy with her opinions, was a proud bleeding-heart liberal, and donated to many humanitarian and environmental causes. She naturalized as an American citizen so she could vote against Ronald Reagan in the California gubernatorial elections, as always willing to back her opinions with action.
Her spirit, sense of humor, easy laugh, determination, self-reliance, style, and love will be dearly missed. Even in recent years, as her memory faded and life became more challenging, she retained her sense of humor and interest in the lives of family and friends. She outlived most of her generation and most of her friends. She showered her family with unwavering love and support and was actively involved in the lives and school community of her local grandkids. We will miss you terribly, dear Vera.
She is survived by her sons Gregory and Antony, her stepdaughter Dallas, daughter-in-law Emily Ozer, her former daughter-in-law Marla Fields, her grandchildren Jason Motlagh, Benjamin Fields, Elena Fields, and Sienna Fields, and great-grandchildren Simone, Atlas, Axel, and Fierce Motlagh. Friends and family will be contacted with details of a future celebration of Vera's life. In lieu of flowers, anyone wishing to honor her memory is invited to donate to the Marin Agricultural Land Trust or another environmental organization.